The Columbus journal., 1887-07-27
COLUMBUS HIGH SCHOOL.
Orations and Essays Of the Graduates. May
9th, 1887.

ABRAHAM LlNSOLN, III ANNA -. TURNER
It is the nature Of every living thing
| to have q guide or leader. The flowers
| bid the sun welcome and follow it with
| their smiles all day, and when it goes to
| rest they mourn its loss.
Animals have their leaders, and the
human family is no exception to the
| rule.
The Indians have their chiefs, the
ancients had their monarchs, and the
| child has its parents or those nearest
associated with it.
Nearly all famous historical characters
are either impossible monsters, or alb
surdly-pertect beings, and We know not
what they really we're.
To such It were senseless to turn for
model leaders.
Among the public men of modern
times there is probably none who for q
laudable ambition, disinterested, lofty
| patriotism, and q tender regard for the
| good of his kind, deserves a higher place
| in loving memory than Abraham Lin
coin.
Says one of his biographers: He
stands alone, no ancestors, no fellows
and no successors"
OA a xCVC4 "4NA4k 1XO u AZ
conspicuous above the greatest"
pure, simple unassuming. kindly,
touched with sadness and relieved by
mirth, he was never stained by falsehoOd
or treachery, nor n hint of shameful
act. His heart as tender as the life was
grand. His life, the richest fruitage of
the liberty he loved. His name, the
tOpmOst which a continent has given
unto fame"
In his childhood he lived in Indiana,
at that time a frontier country. He at
tended school a few months out Of the
year, the remainder of his time being
occupied by hard labor on his fathers
farm.
"When I came of age" he said of him.
self, II did not know much, but some-
how l could read and write and cipher
to the rule of three, but that was all. 1
have not been to school since" Yet he
was a student all his life. Seeking for
knowledge everywhere, he learned much,
and had the modesty of true merit,
being always willing to admit his ig-
norance, oven to a child.
When he was t~wenty-four years old
the Black Hawk wal came on, and he
was elected q captain of volunteers.
This, he said, gave him more pleasure
than any success afterwards.
Then he became clerk in a store, and
next lawyer, and had q very large prac-
tice, but his brethren Of the bar declared
his fees were ridicuously small.
Many opposed his nomination as pres
ident. He offered no shining qualities
at first encounter. The great world at
large had never heard Of him except as
the prairie Orator." and many were
disappointed at the nomination by the
Chicago convention, but subsequent
events justified the good opinion Of his
political friends. Horace Greeley. who
had by implication opposed his nOmina-
ton, said Of Lincoln's speech at Cooper
Institute, N. Y: mo man has ever been
welcomed by such an audience OF the
intellectual and moral culture of our
city, since the days Of Clay and Web
ster."
The presence of such an audience was
q popular recognition Of the great e
tai ability Of Mr.. Lincoln, and was ef-
fectual in attracting the attention Of
the nation to one who had already be-
come known through his debates with
Stephen A. Douglas in a very interest
ing senatorial campaign. We have in
his inaugural and other addresses many
sentences of remarkable strength and
beauty, such as, If the United States
be not q government proper, but an
association of states in the nature Of a
contract merely, q it, as a contract,
be peaceably unmade by less than all
the parties who made it?"
"Plainly, the central idea of secession
10 tho oooonoo NJ anarchyO
'-One section Of the country believes
slavery is right and should be extended,
while the other believes it is wrong and
should not be extended; and this is the
only dispute"
1.-THE country with it's institutions,
belongs to the people who inhabit it."
"Fourscore and seven years ago our
fathers brought forth upon this on
tinent q new nation, conceived in Liber-
ty, and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal"
These sentences will long survive that
struggle as containing the heart Of the
contest, but the closing words Of his
inaugural address, worthy Of perpetual
memory, contained q soul full OF pa
triotic feeling and animated by good
and only good for his troubled country:
I'm your hands, my dlssatle1ed Fellow
countrymen, and not in mine, is the
momentous issue OF civil war. The gov
eminent will not sssal you; you can
have no conflict without being your
selves the aggressors. You have no
oath registered in Heaven to destroy
the government, while I shall have the
most solemn one to preserve, protect,
and defend it. I am loath to close.
We are not enemies but friends. We
must not be enemies. Though passion
may have strained, it must not break
our bonds Of affection. The mystic
cords Of memory, stretching from every
battle field and patriot grave to every
living heart and hearthstone all over
this broad land, will yet swell the chorus
OF the Union, when again touched, as
surely they will be, by the better angels
of our nature"
These prophetic words, uttered in his
inaugural address, found Judgement in
$1,000, I-- --1-:vI